Identity is important. Each of us as individuals, yearn to be recognized as a valuable part of society. We identify ourselves through our values, beliefs, and attitudes. Personally, I identify myself as female, a feminist, Duke Dog, and pug enthusiast. Society, however, tends to focus solely on categorizing our identities by our race, gender, or economical status. Unfortunately, not everyone possesses the privilege of recognition and respect when it comes to their identity. A new animated short, ” No Government Should Get to Decide This”, by the Open Society Foundation, focuses on transgender recognition laws in different countries.
The film is about two minutes long and cuts right to the chase by explaining how lonely it can be to live in a country that does not recognize you for who you are. A quote from the film reads as such ““It’s impossible to condense the complex notion of identity into a single, unchangeable M or F.” A person’s identity is not something that can be easily defined as one thing or another. Identity is fluid, complex, and mysterious, therefore, it should be respected and taught as such. Below is the video and I encourage you to take a minute and watch it! Let me know what you guys think, I thought it was an extremely powerful piece that opened my mind about what identity truly means.
ShoutOut! James Madison University 